Essential Tips for Building Customer-Friendly Chatbots

Are you looking for a 24/7 support agent that doesn't just offer around the clock
support for customer inquiries, but pulls leads as well?
Developing a sturdy chatbot strategy offers just that and so much more.
Stay tuned as we're about to guide you through what exactly is a chatbot and how
to develop one to kickstart a more memorable customer experience.
So what exactly is a chatbot?
Chat bots leverage artificial
intelligenceconversing with humans through natural language processing on various
platforms such as apps, live chat, email, and SMS.
As a quick one on one on natural language
processing, or NLP, it's a tool that makes chatbots possible by converting
unstructured human speech into structured data which computers can comprehend.
The user sends a message to the bot which is then processed through algorithms
trained to detect and understand its meaning.
In other words, NLU bridges communication between humans and machines.
Okay, so what are the actual benefits of a chatbot then?
Well, other than the fact that 74 %
of users prefer chatbots when seeking answers to simple questions,
some of the benefits to expect are that one, they're always up and ready to work.
Chatbots don't need to eat or sleep.
By using a chatbot, your brand becomes not
just accessible but also interactive at any time.
Customers can quickly and consistently obtain answers without you needing
to stumble out of bed to deliver a resolution.
This responsiveness leads to better customer experiences,
increased customer satisfaction, and better overall engagement.
Even better, every interaction is recorded
and available to audit, helping you make the chatbot more reliable
with the opportunity to improve over time for you.
Next is that it delivers the right answers
to customer questions without manual error.
Not only that, but these bots also provide in-depth records of customer complaints,
which you can use to address individually down the line.
As a result, a chat bot is key to obtaining insight
into what consumers expect from your business.
It may take a bit of time for the chat bot
to learn and collect the data, but it offers incredible value once it does.
One of the main drawbacks of having people
helping people is that it's typically one to one support.
A benefit of a chat bot is that they can help you scale.
If you're limited in the number of of customer service reps,
this ultimately takes a toll on your team and resources.
With a chatbot, you're now completing
greater customer inquiries with less human intervention.
Another massive benefit is that even though chatbots can't replace your entire
customer service team, subbing them in for a part of your staff
across day and night is a money saving move.
While an investment is required upfront, maintenance costs on chatbots are minimal.
All right, so it's time to get
into the nitty gritty of how to develop your your own chatbot now.
Whether you're creating one on your own or
connecting with a partner, it's worth knowing how chatbots are developed.
First is choosing the type of chatbot that fits your business needs.
Choose the chatbot you want to develop or
deploy based on the service s you want it to perform.
The two main types are pattern based and AI based.
Most commonly, chatbots are used in customer service and sales.
Next is deciding where it will communicate
with your customers, meaning where will it live on your website?
Remember that your chatbot is an extension of your business and brand,
so ensuring you solidify the end user intent means a more robust chatbot.
Pick a channel best suited for its needs
but doesn't negatively affect your business.
You'll want to consider whether you want your chatbot to be voice or text based.
How does a communication channel integrate with your website or social channels?
And how to market your chatbot
so that users can find it while ensuring it's optimized on mobile application.
You can install a chat bot in a web widget
on your website through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger or Telegram,
on cloud networks, in SMS, or through your CRM or email.
Okay, now it's time to choose the platform.
To start, any simple chat bot is powered by rules and automated processes set
in motion through a conversational interface.
The world of bots has grown significantly over the last couple of years with special
platforms and tools that enable interaction between humans and machines.
This technology offers proven capabilities
for those looking to create their own bot development projects.
All right, you ready for the nerdy part?
The intertwined network of technologies and platforms that operate beneath
the surface, includes deployment channels, third party chat bots,
APIs for creating bots, and NLP tools, among other technology components.
Do your research on what foundation you want to build your bot up from.
Our next tip for developing a chat bot is
ensuring you set rules in place to allow it to learn.
The prime purpose of chatbot progress is
customer service enhancement, ensuring the exchange between a human
and a chat bot flows as effortlessly as possible.
That's the goal.
When creating your bot, ensure that questions are answered
promptly with clear responses for conversations to remain fluid.
Our advice is to gather a collection of common questions your customers have
pre reviously asked and develop it from there.
You'll also need to create a chatbot persona, even a name and a tone of voice.
We have a bunch of resources such as
a free buy persona template you can check out on our website.
Like any communication that comes
from your business, it should be consistent and on brand.
Once these basics are set up, it will help you build your scripts
and keep the same tone over time, ensuring you have a conversational chat bot.
Now that your chat bot's conversation
scenarios are prepared and and set, it's time to train the bot so you no
longer have to guess what questions customers will ask.
Rather than attempt to predict all inquiries coming into the chat bot,
use the data available at hand to teach and improve your bot.
For many companies, a chat bot that is connected to a website
through an API and runs on preprogrammed scripts will be enough.
But if you want your chat bot to mimic
human behaviorand react in various complex situations, it needs a bit more love.
So how do you train bots?
And how much training is necessary for optimal results?
To start, chat bots can be educated
through conversational experiences your business has already received
from the likes of call center recordings, email, mails,
as well as messages on social media platforms like Facebook Messenger.
Other trusted chatbot training sources
include Microsoft Research Social Media Conversation Corpus,
Ubuntu Dial dialog Corpus, Chinese Treebank, and Microsoft Azure.
All right, it's time to test drive this thing.
Before unleashing your AI baby
into the world, you want to test it first and test it thoroughly.
You can test it manually by simply launching into conversations with it.
Assessing several workflow elements such
as intent matching, fallbacks, navigational paths, tone control,
entity recognition, and user satisfaction is critical.
You should initiate usability tests and gain feedback from your users.
Once everything meets your expectations,
it's time to test it with a small group of customers before going public.
As usage increases,
you can gradually expand until everyone can access the chatbot experience.
It's time to finally roll out and launch your chatbot.
While ensuring customers will have
a positive experience with your chatbot is an integral part of this process,
there will be plenty more opportunities for optimization in the future.
Allowing your chatbot to find its unique
voiceopens up infinite possibilities for further improvement.
To ensure the business's growth
and success, it's essential to continuously develop your chatbot.
Countless practices can help you enhance the quality of your bot,
including change management, source code control, as well as automation.
To round out today's video, we've included some suggestions
for chatbots based on the industry or services on offer.
The most obvious choice is for customer service.
Chatbots can handle customer requests, questions, and complaints.
They can track orders and provide support.
They are especially helpful when answering the same queries repeatedly.
Next is project management and personal assistance work.
Chatbots can perform tasks like scheduling
appointments, setting reminders, turning voice notes into documents, and more.
They may not be complex tasks, but they're repetitive tasks that can be
covered so you have more time up your sleeve.
Then there are e-commerce chatbots,
assisting users in purchasing and browsing products.
It can also make recommendations based on the data they have about the person.
One of the most clinical uses for a chatbot are lead generation chatbots.
These interact with potential customers,
gather information, and reveal quality leads to your sales
team through a variety of messaging platforms.
Next is for healthcare companies.
Healthcare chatbots can be designed to provide medical information
and assistance, even making recommendations
or setting appointments for the user based on their symptoms and their availability.
Left of center, though common,
entertainment chatbots keep your audience entertained.
Chatbots don't have to be all work and no play.
You can create trivia games,
fun challenges, and make playlists for your users to interact with.
Another chatbot niche is for HR managers.
Being able to use chatbots to help with on or offboarding.
They can collect feedback and perform
surveys as well as helping with recruitment and employee engagement.
Chap bots transform how businesses
communicate with their audiencesand provide better customer service.
By leveraging AI technology,
these automated machines enable companies to offer a more personalized brand
experience without needing human interference.
That's why chat bots have become an essential part of any business's success.
If you need anything we've covered in this video today, give Neighborhood a shout.
We're here to help you with your next chatbot strategy.
That's all from us. Happy marketing.